ANTHOLOGY AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY                                         ss

about what might be going on.  Based upon that, and the situation as it was
developing, we made the decision that rather than wait until the following
morning to launch the remainder of these forces, that we would go ahead and
launch these forces that afternoon. (Map 4)
   This was the situation you saw the afternoon of the 24th. The Marines
continued to make great progress going through the breach in this area, and
were moving rapidly north.  The Saudi task force on the east coast was also
moving rapidly to the north and making very, very good progress. We launched
another Egyptian/Arab force in this location, and another Saudi force in this
location-again, to penetrate the barrier.  But once again, to make the enemy
continue to think that we were doing exactly what he wanted us to do, and that's
make a headlong assault into a very, very tough barrier system--a very, very
tough mission for these folks here.   But at the same time, what we did is
continued to attack with the French; we launched an aflack on the part of the en-
tire VII Corps where the 1st Infantry Division went through, breached an
obstacle and minefield barrier here, established quite a large breach through
which we passed the 1st British Armored Division.       At the same time, we
launched the 1st Armored Division and the 3d Armored Division and because
of our deception plan and the way it worked, we didn't even have to worry
about a barrier, we just went right around the enemy and were behind him in
no time at all, and the 2d Armored Cavalry [Regiment].          The 24th Mech
Division also launched out here in the far west. I ought to talk about the 101st,
because this is an important point.
   Once the 101st had their forward operating base established here, they then
went ahead and launched into the Tigris and Euphrates valleys.    There are a lot
of people who are still saying that the objective of the United States of America
was to capture Iraq and cause the downfall of the entire country of Iraq.   La-
dies and gentlemen, when we were here, we were 150 miles away from
Baghdad, and there was nobody between us and Baghdad.          If it had been our
intention to take Iraq, if it had been our intention to destroy the country, if it
had been our intention to overrun the country, we could have done it unopposed,
for all intents and purposes, from this position at that time. That was not our
intention, we have never said it was our intention.   Our intention was truly to
eject the Iraqis out of Kuwait and destroy the military power that had come in
here. (Map 5)
   So this was the situation at the end of 24 February in the afternoon.
   The next two days went exactly like we thought they would go. The Saudis
continued to make great progress up on the eastern flank, keeping the pressure
off the Marines on the flank here. The Special Forces went out and started
operating small boat operations Out in this area to help clear mines, but also to
threaten the flanks here, and to continue to make them think that we were, in
fact, going to conduct amphibious operations.   The Saudi and Arab forces that
came in and took these two initial objectives turned to come in on the flank
heading towards Kuwait City, located right in this area here.    The British UK
passed through and continued to attack up this flank.  Of course, the VII Corps
came in and attacked in this direction shown here.   The 24th Infantry Division